Of mammalian tissues, the central nervous system is one of the most complex, both in terms of structure and function. The brain has an incredible capacity for executing a multitude of computational tasks and possesses several intricate forms of memory mechanisms. Understanding the function of a variety of CNS processes in the healthy and diseased brain has been one of the most intensively studied by mankind but is still not well-established and understood.
Ion-channels are important therapeutic targets. Neuronal communication, heart function, and memory all critically rely upon the function of ligand-gated and voltage-gated ion-channels. In addition, a broad range of chronic and acute pathophysiological states in many organs such as the heart, gastrointestinal tract, and brain involve ion channels. Indeed, many existing drugs bind receptors directly or indirectly connected to ion-channels. For example, anti-psychotic drugs interact with receptors involved in dopaminergic, serotonergic, cholinergic and glutamatergic neurotransmission.
Because of the importance of ion-channels as drug targets, there is a need for methods which enable high throughput screening (HTS) of compounds acting on ligand-gated and voltage-gated channels (see e.g., Sinclair et al., 2002, Anal. Chem. 74: 6133-6138). However, existing HTS drug discovery systems targeting ion channels generally miss significant drug activity because they employ indirect methods, such as raw binding assays or fluorescence-based readouts. Although as many as ten thousand drug leads can be identified from a screen of a million compounds, identification of false positives and false negatives can still result in a potential highly therapeutic blockbuster drug being ignored, and in unnecessary and costly investments in false drug leads.
Patch clamp methods are superior to any other technology for measuring ion channel activity in cells, and can measure currents across cell membranes in ranges as low as picoAmps (see, e.g., Neher and Sakmann, 1976, Nature 260: 799-802; Hamill, et al., 1981, Pflugers Arch 391: 85-100; Sakmann and Neher, 1983, In Single-Channel Recording pp. 37-52, Eds. B. Sakmann and E. Neher. New York and London, Plenum Press, 1983). However, patch clamp methods generally have not been the methods of choice for developing HTS platforms.